Join us as students from the Border Crossers project launch the robotic border crossers--transported via a student-made autonomous vehicle--at three campus locations.

During winter semester 2018, students across campus—from LSA, Engineering, Art and Design, and Information—will work with visiting artist Chico MacMurtrie planning, building, and launching a 40-foot robotic sculpture that poetically explores the notion of borders and boundary conditions.

MacMurtrie’s artist residency and interdisciplinary project, "Border Crossers," led by the Institute for the Humanities, encourages investigation of borders as constructed entities, both embodying a simple curiosity to see what lies on the other side of a border (national, architectural, environmental, etc.) and expression of a utopian desire to live in a world without borders.

The project symbolizes the humanities in action, and the empowerment that can be achieved through working together, overcoming obstacles and divides, and discovering creative solutions.

Chico MacMurtrie is an award winning artist, renowned internationally for his large-scale robotic sculpture, whose work combines materiality and robotics, the visceral and conceptual. MacMurtrie is the Artistic Director of Amorphic Robot Works, an interdisciplinary creative collective located in Brooklyn, NY.

Visiting artist Chico MacMurtrie's residency and project are sponsored by the U-M Institute for the Humanities in collaboration with U-M Museum of Art, Michigan Robotics, Michigan Engineering, School of Information, Penny Stamps Speaker Series, Stamps School of Art and Design, and ArtsEngin.


Border Crossers Events
Border Crossers installation
Feb 16-March 23 2018
Institute for the Humanities Gallery, 202 S. Thayer
Gallery Hours: M-F 9am-5pm
Live Robotic Border Crossers performances
Feb 14, North Campus, Engineering Grounds, time TBA
Feb 16, In front of UMMA, 525 S. State, 4:30pm
Feb 16, Ingalls Mall, 6:30pm
Special Penny W. Stamps Lecture by Chico MacMurtrie & Artist Reception
Feb 16, U-M Museum of Art, Helmut Stern Aud (lecture), 5:30pm, followed by reception at Institute for the Humanities at 6:30pm